Sunday, May 30, 2010,
Hey guys! This is the final game review that I had promised. As mentioned earlier, the game that I would be reviewing in this post is...
CBeebies - Shape Japer Dominoes
The name (above) is a link, which you can click to access to the game.
On the home page of the game Shape Japers Dominoes, the children would be greeted with a page that provides the option of choosing level one or two for the game, as well as an option to view the instructions of the game (above). Upon clicking on the instructions tab, the website would then direct the children to this:The name (above) is a link, which you can click to access to the game.
I am particularly excited about this game review because I just love playing this game so much, and it feels really good to be sharing such and exciting and enjoyable game with other people!
Description:
Subject Focus: Mathematics
Characters involved: The numbers 0 to 7, characters from Shape Japer, and number dots
Skills needed: The ability to use the mouse, and basic knowledge of mathematical concepts such as counting and matching.
Technological concept: Drag and drop
How to play:
Subject Focus: Mathematics
Characters involved: The numbers 0 to 7, characters from Shape Japer, and number dots
Skills needed: The ability to use the mouse, and basic knowledge of mathematical concepts such as counting and matching.
Technological concept: Drag and drop
How to play:
Level 1:
In the first level, the children are given eight dominoes in random positions at the bottom of the screen. One domino is already placed in the center of the page and the children are required to match the numbers and characters of Shape Japer Dominoes by clicking, dragging and then dropping the matching domino beside the one that was already placed in the center of the page(below).
The children are then required to continue matching the remaining slides by clicking, dragging and dropping them to the center of the page so that it would create an extended 'chain' of dominoes. There is a timer at the top left hand corner of the page, and children can check their timings at the end of the game (below).
Level 2:
As for level two, the instructions and settings of the game are still the same. However, there is one more attribute that the children need to take into consideration when matching. The additional attribute would be the number dots. At such, the children are required to match the numbers to the same numbers, the characters to the same characters, and lastly, the number dots to the same number dots (below).
Just like in level one, the children would have to also create an extended 'chain' of dominoes by using all of the dominoes in some way or the other. The game only ends when all the dominoes have been used.
Since you have learned about the game, I would now be evaluating the game.
Since you have learned about the game, I would now be evaluating the game.
On a whole, the game is really enjoyable as the game is colourful because of the characters on the dominoes. Apart from that, there are also sound effects in the game. The rules, goals, instructions and subject of the game are clear, and the concept is simple enough for the children to understand in order to navigate and play. The children would also ind it exciting as they get to race against time while improving their matching skills at the same time.
You can click on the thumbnails (below) to view the Rubric marking criteria and the score of the game.
Lastly, teachers and parents can use this game to help the children to improve on their mathematical counting skills, hand-eye coordination as well as to improve on their skills of identifying similarities and differences amongst the dominoes. This game is ideal for children aged four and above as it involves the ability to recognize numbers and its numerical values..
In conclusion, based on the rubric system, parents and teachers can rest assured that this game is effective and can provide an exciting and enjoyable experience for the children to improve their matching skills. Personally, I would give the game a four and a half out of five!
We have come to the end of the review. Thank you for reading this long post!
You can click on the thumbnails (below) to view the Rubric marking criteria and the score of the game.
Lastly, teachers and parents can use this game to help the children to improve on their mathematical counting skills, hand-eye coordination as well as to improve on their skills of identifying similarities and differences amongst the dominoes. This game is ideal for children aged four and above as it involves the ability to recognize numbers and its numerical values..
In conclusion, based on the rubric system, parents and teachers can rest assured that this game is effective and can provide an exciting and enjoyable experience for the children to improve their matching skills. Personally, I would give the game a four and a half out of five!
We have come to the end of the review. Thank you for reading this long post!
Labels: Games, mathematics, Review, rubric, shape japer dominoes
6:06 AM
Thursday, May 27, 2010,
Hello!
Finally the long awaited reviews of the educational games for children are here!
However, before I begin my review, let me first tell you briefly on how I am doing this review. To start things off, I would begin by describing the activities in terms of the instructions, rules and basically how to go about playing the game. After that, I would analysis the game based a rubric system (which will be further elaborated later on) before giving my personal rating of the game. Lastly, I would be providing a brief explanation on why I chose these two games, on how effective it is for both parents and teachers to use to teach, in order to enhance the children's learning on a specific subject.
Now, on to the game reviews! The first that I will be reviewing is...
Game Goo - Paw Park (Alphabet Bears)
The name(above) is a link. You can clink on it to access the website, but not after you read my review okay!
Description:
Subject focus: The Paw Park is aimed at enhancing the children's English language skills in terms of their phonics skills and pronunciation.
Setting: At the carnival
Characters involved: 5 bears and 5 cabins of the roller coaster
Skills needed: The ability to use the Mouse, basic knowledge of alphabets and phonics
Technological concept: Drag and Drop
How to play:
In the game Paw Parks, children are required to arrange the bears that in the foreground, by dragging each bear to the cabin of the roller in the background. At the start of the game, 5 bears will be standing in the foreground in a random order. Each bear would have a picture and a word on it's t-shirt, and the children are supposed to arrange the bears in the cabin in an ascending order(from left to right) of the starting alphabet of the word the the bear's t-shirt. The words on each bear's t-shirt will be read out by the program when the Mouse is hovered over it, so that children can identify the words, count the syllables in each word, link the words with the pronunciation, and also to the symbolic representation, which in others, are the pictures above the words.
However, the game gets more and more complicated as one progresses in the rounds. There are three levels in total, with 5 rounds (rounds are indicated in the balloon in the top left hand corner of the game) in each level.
Level 1:
For the first level, the 5 bears would be wearing t-shirts with a series of alphabets. A series of alphabets would be like the letter A to E, F to J, K to P, etc... In this case (below), the letters F,G,H,I and J are used in the first round. The children are then required to drag and drop the bears into the cabins according the alphabets, in ascending order.
Children who have difficulty identifying the starting alphabets of the words need not worry as the starting alphabets would be highlighted in red. However, this hint is only available in round one.
Subject focus: The Paw Park is aimed at enhancing the children's English language skills in terms of their phonics skills and pronunciation.
Setting: At the carnival
Characters involved: 5 bears and 5 cabins of the roller coaster
Skills needed: The ability to use the Mouse, basic knowledge of alphabets and phonics
Technological concept: Drag and Drop
How to play:
In the game Paw Parks, children are required to arrange the bears that in the foreground, by dragging each bear to the cabin of the roller in the background. At the start of the game, 5 bears will be standing in the foreground in a random order. Each bear would have a picture and a word on it's t-shirt, and the children are supposed to arrange the bears in the cabin in an ascending order(from left to right) of the starting alphabet of the word the the bear's t-shirt. The words on each bear's t-shirt will be read out by the program when the Mouse is hovered over it, so that children can identify the words, count the syllables in each word, link the words with the pronunciation, and also to the symbolic representation, which in others, are the pictures above the words.
However, the game gets more and more complicated as one progresses in the rounds. There are three levels in total, with 5 rounds (rounds are indicated in the balloon in the top left hand corner of the game) in each level.
Level 1:
For the first level, the 5 bears would be wearing t-shirts with a series of alphabets. A series of alphabets would be like the letter A to E, F to J, K to P, etc... In this case (below), the letters F,G,H,I and J are used in the first round. The children are then required to drag and drop the bears into the cabins according the alphabets, in ascending order.
Children who have difficulty identifying the starting alphabets of the words need not worry as the starting alphabets would be highlighted in red. However, this hint is only available in round one.
As one progresses through the different rounds, the game becomes much more difficult as letters in the series of alphabet would be skipped occasionally. In this case (below), the bear with the t-shirt that has the letter X was skipped in the series of U,V,W,X,Y and Z.
Level 2:
As for the second level, the names and objects on the bears' t-shirts would have changed to people and their names. The rules of the game are still the same; that the children are required to arrange the bears in ascending based on the letters on the bear's t-shirt.
An example of level would be like this:
A preview of the second round of level 2
An example of level would be like this:
As you can see, the letters P,R,S,T and U are used in this round. Since it is at a more advanced level, letters will be skipped. In this case, the letter Q had been skipped. However, this would not occur in every round of the level. You also notice that the first alphabet of the word is no longer highlighted in red.
A preview of the second round of level 2
Level 3:
In this case, A,C,E,G, and I (which are the odd numbered letters) are used in this series.
An important point to take note of: Children are given three 'chances' to make mistakes while arranging the bears. If a child makes a mistake again, the computer would provide the answer by arranging the bears accordingly, while reading out the words on the t-shirt of the bears in ascending order of the starting alphabet.
Evaluation:
On to the evaluation bit.
I did mention about the Rubric system earlier on. It is actually system to aid in evaluating the effectiveness of the game in the education setting. The 'marking criteria' of the Rubric is based on three categories: ''Organization and design', 'The instruction, design and delivery', and 'The game-based learning'.
To sum it up, here is the evaluation for Game Goo's Paw Park (Alphabet Bears) based on the Rubric System:
Hold 'Shift' while clicking on the image to view it in another window.
Finally, in level 3, the items on the bears' t-shirts are back to objects instead of people and their names. However, instead of skipping a letter, the series of letters are of odd letters or even letters of the alphabets. In other words, the starting letters of the words on the bears' t-shirts are alternating letters. You can view the screenshot below to have a better understanding of it.
In this case, A,C,E,G, and I (which are the odd numbered letters) are used in this series.
As one progresses through the rounds in level 3 however, the letters used in the series becomes more jumbled up. As you can see, the letters C,G,K,R and N are used in the series. At such, the children would having to arranging the bears according to the letter which appears first in the alphabet, instead the series of the alphabet.
An important point to take note of: Children are given three 'chances' to make mistakes while arranging the bears. If a child makes a mistake again, the computer would provide the answer by arranging the bears accordingly, while reading out the words on the t-shirt of the bears in ascending order of the starting alphabet.
Evaluation:
On to the evaluation bit.
I did mention about the Rubric system earlier on. It is actually system to aid in evaluating the effectiveness of the game in the education setting. The 'marking criteria' of the Rubric is based on three categories: ''Organization and design', 'The instruction, design and delivery', and 'The game-based learning'.
To sum it up, here is the evaluation for Game Goo's Paw Park (Alphabet Bears) based on the Rubric System:
Hold 'Shift' while clicking on the image to view it in another window.
You can click on the thumbnails (below) to view the rubric marking criteria as well as the scores for the game.
Hold 'Shift' and click the image to view it in another window.
Last but not least, before I end this post, I would like to explain to you as to how you, parents and teachers alike can use this game to educate in a much more enjoyable manner. For starters, this game should only be introduced to children aged 5 and above. This is because of the complicated concept of the ordering of the alphabets which requires the use of higher level thinking in order to accomplish the activities.
However, this game is aimed at building a firm foundation of the alphabet, while at the same time, enhancing the children's pronunciation and phonics. At such, parents and teachers can introduce this game to the children once they have mastered remembering the alphabet. This is so as to test their understanding of the letters of the alphabet, how pronounce simple words, that are introduced in the game and lastly, to enhance their eye-hand coordination as they drag and drop the bears into the cabins.
In conclusion, this game is an effective strategy to further enhance children's understanding of the alphabet and how to identify starting letters of words in an interactive manner, where children can be encouraged to repeat the words pronounced by the computer program whenever the mouse is hovered over the word.
I would personally give this game a four out of five, thus it is highly recommendable for teachers and parents alike, to introduce this game the children.
We have come to the end of the first review. Stay tuned for the second review of another game!
But before you leave, Click Here to access the game!
However, this game is aimed at building a firm foundation of the alphabet, while at the same time, enhancing the children's pronunciation and phonics. At such, parents and teachers can introduce this game to the children once they have mastered remembering the alphabet. This is so as to test their understanding of the letters of the alphabet, how pronounce simple words, that are introduced in the game and lastly, to enhance their eye-hand coordination as they drag and drop the bears into the cabins.
In conclusion, this game is an effective strategy to further enhance children's understanding of the alphabet and how to identify starting letters of words in an interactive manner, where children can be encouraged to repeat the words pronounced by the computer program whenever the mouse is hovered over the word.
I would personally give this game a four out of five, thus it is highly recommendable for teachers and parents alike, to introduce this game the children.
We have come to the end of the first review. Stay tuned for the second review of another game!
But before you leave, Click Here to access the game!
Labels: Children, Early Childhood, Educational, Game, Games, Review
6:06 AM
Thursday, May 20, 2010,
Hey guys! In the next two posts, I will be touching on educational games that both teachers and parent can use to enhance children's learning.
The two game that I will be reviewing are:
CBeebies - Shape Japer Dominoes
and...
Game Goo - Paw Park (Alphabet Bears)
I hope you guys are just as excited as I am about these game reviews!
See you in the next post!
See you in the next post!
4:36 AM
Monday, May 10, 2010,
This is actually my first post on this site, so I would like to begin it by introducing myself. My name is Kethlyn, and I am from class T02 of ECH Year 2 (NP).
Okay, enough about me. On to the main topic of this post. As you can see from the title of this post, it says VAK.
So what exactly is VAK?
Well, VAK actually refers to:
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
These are the three main 'channels' that we use as sensory receptors to receive the information that we wish to perceive, understand and remember. Even though every individual has their own unique style of learning, it is said that all of us make use of all three forms of learning. However, we still do have a common preference of learning, which is either in the form of visual, audio or kinesthetic learning.
So you might now be wondering what kind of learner you are, and how to identify as specific type of learner. Read on as I list examples of people who are visual, audio and kinesthetic learners. If you are someone who prefers to watch and listen, rather than read, then scroll down to the video. The video would also be identifying the characteristics of the three types of learning.
How to identify a Visual Learner:
They are...
People who prefer to learn visually can be categorized into two groups: linguistic or spatial. Visual-linguistic learners benefit most by reading and writing tasks. They can quickly understand and retain information that is in written form, so materials such as meeting handouts, notes in class and textbook assignments work well for these learners. Visual-spatial learners do not enjoy reading or writing tasks but instead learn most effectively when graphs, illustrations, color coding and other visual aids are used to present information. People who prefer to learn in this manner tend to associate new information with mental imagery.
How to identify a Auditorial Learner:
They are...
Auditory learners like to receive new information and instructions through listening and speaking. An auditory learner can best absorb information by having a conversation with someone, listening to an audiotape, sitting in a classroom lecture or participating in a presentation. People with this learning preference may enjoy activities that involve brainstorming, debate and other vocal exchanges that take place between people.
And lastly, how to identify a Kinesthetic Learner:
They are...
Kinesthetic learners can be classified as dependent on touch or motion. A kinesthetic learner may appear to be easily distracted by exhibiting excess movement, doodling on notes in class or falling asleep during a long presentation. These learners perform best when encouraged to be active. Teaching techniques that benefit kinesthetic learners involve taking stretch breaks during long presentations, performing activities that involve movement, providing the opportunity for notes to be written or highlighted and playing music when appropriate.
The video
It is important for both teacher and student to identify and know of the learning styles so that learning can be more meaningful and effective for the children. 5 such examples to aid these three different types of learners would be:
1. To provide opportunities for brainstorming sessions so that audio learners can share their opinions as well as learn from those who are providing ideas.
2. To provide activities that involves moving around. These way, the kinesthetic learners are given the opportunity to learn from experience and also apply their knowledge to the hands-on activities.
3. To provide writing materials such as highlighters, pens and markers, and provide sufficient time for them to copy. By doing so, kinesthetic learners can move their hands while taking down important notes.
4. To use graphs, pictures, videos and other visual illustrations in lessons (for Visual learners)
5. To leave space in hand-outs for Visual and Kinesthetic learners to take notes.
This is the end of the post. Thank you for reading!
Till then
Okay, enough about me. On to the main topic of this post. As you can see from the title of this post, it says VAK.
So what exactly is VAK?
Well, VAK actually refers to:
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
These are the three main 'channels' that we use as sensory receptors to receive the information that we wish to perceive, understand and remember. Even though every individual has their own unique style of learning, it is said that all of us make use of all three forms of learning. However, we still do have a common preference of learning, which is either in the form of visual, audio or kinesthetic learning.
So you might now be wondering what kind of learner you are, and how to identify as specific type of learner. Read on as I list examples of people who are visual, audio and kinesthetic learners. If you are someone who prefers to watch and listen, rather than read, then scroll down to the video. The video would also be identifying the characteristics of the three types of learning.
How to identify a Visual Learner:
They are...
People who prefer to learn visually can be categorized into two groups: linguistic or spatial. Visual-linguistic learners benefit most by reading and writing tasks. They can quickly understand and retain information that is in written form, so materials such as meeting handouts, notes in class and textbook assignments work well for these learners. Visual-spatial learners do not enjoy reading or writing tasks but instead learn most effectively when graphs, illustrations, color coding and other visual aids are used to present information. People who prefer to learn in this manner tend to associate new information with mental imagery.
How to identify a Auditorial Learner:
They are...
Auditory learners like to receive new information and instructions through listening and speaking. An auditory learner can best absorb information by having a conversation with someone, listening to an audiotape, sitting in a classroom lecture or participating in a presentation. People with this learning preference may enjoy activities that involve brainstorming, debate and other vocal exchanges that take place between people.
And lastly, how to identify a Kinesthetic Learner:
They are...
Kinesthetic learners can be classified as dependent on touch or motion. A kinesthetic learner may appear to be easily distracted by exhibiting excess movement, doodling on notes in class or falling asleep during a long presentation. These learners perform best when encouraged to be active. Teaching techniques that benefit kinesthetic learners involve taking stretch breaks during long presentations, performing activities that involve movement, providing the opportunity for notes to be written or highlighted and playing music when appropriate.
The video
It is important for both teacher and student to identify and know of the learning styles so that learning can be more meaningful and effective for the children. 5 such examples to aid these three different types of learners would be:
1. To provide opportunities for brainstorming sessions so that audio learners can share their opinions as well as learn from those who are providing ideas.
2. To provide activities that involves moving around. These way, the kinesthetic learners are given the opportunity to learn from experience and also apply their knowledge to the hands-on activities.
3. To provide writing materials such as highlighters, pens and markers, and provide sufficient time for them to copy. By doing so, kinesthetic learners can move their hands while taking down important notes.
4. To use graphs, pictures, videos and other visual illustrations in lessons (for Visual learners)
5. To leave space in hand-outs for Visual and Kinesthetic learners to take notes.
This is the end of the post. Thank you for reading!
Till then
8:15 AM
